Gav_P

This lady did it for £105k apparently.. https://www.self-build.co.uk/home/budget-family-home/

Yeah, assume it’s a sensible plot (Level ground without silly soil structures etc) with services to the site. And all surveys were completed as part of getting the PP sorted, so sunk costs and not in the £100k budget.

So with that long term expense you were well over the £100k budget before you started!!

Why do you say this? The cost of labour?

It’s not a real scenario, just theoretical... If you had a plot and £100k what would you do. I think I would do the whole build myself. Probably go for a timber frame, either stick or diy SIP panels. As getting out of the ground is always a very pricey bit, I wonder if building on concrete pads (A bit like doing a shed) would be quicker and cheaper. Seems to be popular in other countries, like the US.

I think that may have been what made me think about it.

So just as the title says... you have £100k (Plus £30k contingency ;)) and an existing plot (which you have pp on) to build a detached family home in 12-18 months max. What would you build? How many floors, beds, bathrooms? What materials, structure, etc? Can it be done?

Very lucky indeed... my builders approach was a little more carefree, I think he preferred to install the cavity insulation from the other side of the field, like some kind of trick basketball shot. It felt like I had to pull him up on something he’d done wrong everyday. .... still , it did mean I got to learn an awful lot about how not to do things ... in preparation for my next build, which I swore that I would never ever do again ?

Wow.. that nice to know that your level of air tightness can be achieve in a fairly traditional build structure. Just the challenge of finding a suitable builder who doesn’t cut corners every time your not on site ?

I assume the little metal t shape end bit is now integral due to adhesive. I guess you have to remove them soon after getting the tiles level, before the adhesive fully sets.

That’s a big effort!! very impressive, especially as you won’t see most of it hidden behind the pan.

This ?

Yes. don’t put a mountain of adhesive on, but make sure there is some so you don’t end up with a ‘hollow’ tile.

Just slap some adhesive on the back of the tile and get it in the wall. You can use those levelling things on 3 sides, that should be enough surely? I’ve never used then myself.

Ah... nibbling... Not for the faint hearted. I threw my nibblers out the window in a rage as I kept having the same issue. I ended up drilling corners. Cutting straight up to them. Then did lots of cuts in parallel (making lots of skinny fingers of tile) to remove most of the waste bit of tile. Then plunge cut across the scraggy end to tidy it up. I’m fairly certain that a professional tiler would be horrified by this technique, but it did work on fairly fragile tiles for me. ps... I didn’t have one tile crack or break when fixing them to the wall.

Could you drill a hole and then cut up to it? That how I stopped mine from breaking when doing naffy cuts around protrusions.

That’s amazing, I’d always assumed you had some kind of timber / PIR based structure... don’t know why, maybe because you have something that’s near to passive. what did you use in the cavity? How did you manage to get the block work airtight?

Any hotels wanting to improve their beach front? Or local schools, play parks etc horse or dog tracks? local farmers?

Oooo yeah throw in the fact you can charge your EV car without a driveway.

Is there a defined parking bay outside your house already? Why not pave your front garden anyway... the drop kerb can be done at a later date once you e figure out how to tackle the poxy planners. I certain there are some Transient individuals who would drop the curb over weekend if you were so inclined.

Sounds like the right thing to do. I’m my opinion gas is still the best option if you can do it. You can always change it in the future if you feel like it... although the luxury of a quick responding system is something that you may not want to give up. Maybe plan for a hybrid system as per PeterW suggestion, then you can have the best of both worlds. ?

If I could get gas to the house that cheap I would do it.... and I have an ASHP.

Funny you say that... I was trawling through my old posts and it reminded me that I have already put a willis heater in (but as a bypass to the HP when I broke it). So maybe I should reconfigure it to be inline (with a second one to meet flow rates) . it’s certainly the cheapest upfront cost... and easiest to get working.

I have just realised my fundamental error ... my HP is 4kw not 5. ??‍♂️

To be fair I haven’t really monitored the output of the HP, I’ve just plumbed it in switched it on and bingo it worked... so maybe I need to take a look at managing it better. ?